Education
Dean Ketchum Royle School Principal in 2017 wide horizontal

Royle School Principal Dean Ketchum Resigns, Assistant Middlesex Principal Garan Mullin Named Interim Principal

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Dean Ketchum has resigned as principal of Royle Elementary School, Darien Schools Superintendent Alan Addley announced Monday afternoon in an email to parents. Addley gave no indication why Ketchum resigned or whether Ketchum was going to another job. Addley said that Dr. Garan Mullin, assistant principal of Middlesex Middle School, has been appointed interim principal of Royle for the upcoming school year, when a search for a permanent replacement will begin. ________

Update, 4:37 p.m.: According to a 2016 news release from Darien Public Schools, Ketchum, now 51, was an elementary school teacher in Oklahoma, and served as the executive director of school improvement at the Oklahoma Department of Education for three years before moving to New York in 2003. In New York, he was a middle school math teacher and assistant principal at PS 217 before being appointed principal at PS 212 (Midtown West School), where he served for ten years.

Education
Royle School Royle Welcome 5-25-16

New Principal Approved for Royle School, Interim Principal John Grasso Departs

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Royle School’s next principal has been named by the Board of Education: Dean Ketchum, a former elementary and middle school teacher, principal and education official, will take over on July 1 from John Grasso, who was named interim principal in the summer of 2014. Here’s an announcement about Ketchum’s appointment that the school district sent out Wednesday to staff and parents:

Last evening, by a unanimous vote, the Darien Board of Education appointed Dean Ketchum as principal of Royle Elementary School, effective July 1, 2016. Mr. Ketchum graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor of arts in Classics and went on to earn both his master’s in education and administrative certificate. Mr. Ketchum began his career as an elementary teacher at Madison Elementary School in Norman, Oklahoma. After teaching first, third, fourth and fifth grades at Madison for seven years, he moved to the University of Oklahoma, where he served as senior program development specialist at the College of Continuing Education.